Satoru Abe

Satoru Abe (born 13 June 1926) is an American sculptor and painter. He was born in Honolulu, Hawaii. He attended President William McKinley High School, where he took art lessons from Shirley Ximena Hopper Russell. In 1948, after spending a summer at the California School for Fine Arts, he decided to pursue an art career in New York City and attended the Art Students League of New York where he studied with George Grosz, Louis Bouche and Jon Carrol. He married a fellow student and returned to Hawaii in 1950 with his wife, Ruth, and daughter Gail. Abe met local artist Isami Doi, who would become a close friend and mentor. Although Abe began as a painter, he learned welding from Bumpei Akaji in 1951, and the two artists began a series of copper work experiments. In 1956, Abe returned to New York and found a creative home at the SculptureCenter, where his work attracted the attention of gallery owners and others. In 1963, Abe was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship. Abe returned to Hawai'i in 1970. Along with Bumpei Akaji, Edmund Chung, Tetsuo Ochikubo, Jerry T. Okimoto, James Park, and Tadashi Sato, Abe was a member of the Metcalf Chateau, a group of seven Asian-American artists with ties to Honolulu.

Abe is best known for his sculptures of abstracted natural forms, many of which resemble trees, such as East and West in the collection of the Hawaii State Art Museum. He also painted. Two Abstract Figures in the collection of the Honolulu Museum of Art typifies this aspect of his work. The Honolulu Museum of Art and the Hawaii State Art Museum are among the public collections that hold Abe's works. His sculptures in public places include:

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